A shot across the bow

If you had any doubts that Amazon’s Lending Library was eventually going to compete with public libraries, here’s where your doubts get shattered. From Amazon’s homepage today, on the announcement of all 7 Harry Potter books entering the Kindle Lending Library program:

With traditional library lending, the library buys a certain number of e-book copies of a particular title. If all of those are checked out, you have to get on a waiting list….the wait can sometimes be months.

With the Kindle Owners Lending Library, there are no due dates, you can borrow as frequently as once a month, and there are no limits on how many people can borow the same title…

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5 thoughts on “A shot across the bow”

I have to say that the line,”as frequently as once a month” still makes me chuckle. But I guess they are selling it as guaranteed, no lines no wait, for these seven books with the implication of others. So, it’s once a month no problem versus “roll the dice” with the public library. I still think this a bit of turd polishing…

You don’t have to wait in line, but you have to pay $79 per year for it, in addition to the purchase of a Kindle. Since your local library is a funded resource, you don’t have to pay additional to borrow that title you may never read again. And you can usually get it in a format that doesn’t require the purchase of a specific device.

With amazon.com, you get one book a month. Ok, then what do I do for the other 27 days? I’m not saying kindle is a poor resource… it’s simply one available. I wouldn’t give up radio for TV (or vice versa). I’m sorry this has to be a competition between the library and amazon. What do you advise patrons/customers do? I truly do want to support libraries and access, but I’m not sure of the best action to get that across to anyone. TIA for your help.

One way to support libraries is to sign the petition at ebooksforlibraries.com. Since the largest publishers are restricting library access to the most popular titles and authors, that means that you cannot borrow it from the library. You have to purchase it from somewhere or go through a paid subscription like Amazon Prime.